🔷Trends #0063 — Micro-SaaS

Why It Matters

Micro-SaaS helps you design your life without optimizing for investors and large teams.

It can also be a wedge into larger markets. Morphing into SaaS. Or even a platform. Big things start small.

Problem

Large SaaS apps solve lots of problems for lots of people.

Solution

Micro-SaaS apps solve a specific problem for a specific group of people.

Some traits:

Run by a solo founder or small team
Focused on a single feature or minimal feature set
Extends a platform such as Shopify, Stripe or Intercom

Players

Micro-SaaS:

Potion - Create custom websites in Notion.
TextRetailer - Let customers shop using text messages.
Placid - Generate social share images.
Elon Stocks - Trade on Elon's tweets.
Super - Turn Notion pages into websites.
Plausible - Simple, privacy-friendly analytics.
PermanentLink - Prevent link rot.
ilo - Understand how your tweets perform.
Benji - Tax write-offs for Canadian freelancers.
Control - Financial management app for small businesses.
Userbase - User authentication.
ScreenshotAPI - Programmatic screenshots.

Predictions

We'll see more Micro-SaaS apps built with no-code tools like Bubble and Bildr. InvestorFuse reached $50K per month using Podio and Zapier. SendPilot.co runs on Bubble. The first version of Shoutout was built on Bubble.
Open-source, SaaS alternatives will continue to emerge. A few examples:
- Baserow - Alternative to Airtable
- Joplin - Alternative to Notion and Evernote
- Athens - Alternative to Roam and Obsidian
- Papercups - Alternative to Crisp and Intercom
- Supabase and Nhost - Alternatives to Firebase
- Calendso - Alternative to SavvyCal and Calendly
- Bitwarden - Alternative to 1Password and LastPass
Platforms will continue to clone popular plugins. Shopify now offers native abandoned cart recovery. They are outsourcing R&D.
Micro-SaaS will thrive despite platforms cloning features. Abandoned cart apps, like CartHook, Consistent Cart, and Privy solve problems missed by Shopify. They can move faster than large apps and design for thousands instead of millions of people.

Opportunities

Index into an existing market to reduce market risk. Find fast-growing form factors like AI-Generated Copy, Notion-to-Site, and Sheet-to-Site tools. Don't try to recreate the wheel.
Build a Micro-XaaS. See NurtureKit and Gloat. Services are typically faster to revenue than software. This is another way to stairstep your way to SaaS.
Buy instead of build to save time. XOXO Capital owns a feedback tool, screenshot service and sheet-to-API tool. See more examples in the Micro Private Equity report. Time is not money. It's non-renewable.
Look at digital product subscriptions. See Page Flows, GoRails, Storytale, JustDjango, and Start React Native. Content can offer a faster route to revenue than software. Stairstep your way to SaaS.
Make the leap from services to SaaS. Tyler Tringas got the idea for Storemapper while freelancing. Craig Hewitt ran a podcast editing service before a podcast hosting service.

Key Lessons

Micro-SaaS is about focus. Large, monolithic apps may have more features, financing, and people. But they lack focus. Micro-SaaS apps can make design concessions for specific groups of people.
Technical moats are fading. Code is being commoditized. Distribution matters more than ever.
Micro-SaaS is an example of the increasing leverage of individuals. Solo founders and small teams can build more and faster than ever before. This meta-trend also shows up in Million-Dollar, One Person Businesses, No-Code, and Low-Code.

Haters

"Your definition of Micro-SaaS doesn't mention revenue."

You're right. It doesn't. A revenue ceiling may be correlated to small teams and hyper-focused features. But making money doesn't make you less of a Micro-SaaS.

"What if a customer outgrows my Micro-SaaS?"

Some will. Productized Services are similar. Their ability to streamline operations stems from their ability to focus. If you're selling to everyone, you're selling to no one. Focus isn't free. Don't lose a diamond chasing glitter.

"You say index into markets. What about well-established markets?"

It's not a hard rule. Slow-growing markets with embedding effects may be hard to break into. Or the market is already small. Consider opportunity costs. Some battles aren't worth fighting.